CHICAGO (Reuters) – An American veterinary group issued guidelines on Wednesday on how to handle and potentially quarantine pet cats and dogs that may have been exposed to humans with Ebola.

Dogs and cats are not known to be capable of getting or spreading Ebola. But Spanish health officials killed a dog belonging to a nurse who got Ebola, stirring widespread protest. U.S. authorities quarantined the dog of an American nurse with the virus.

The guidelines from the American Veterinary Medical Association aim to help state governments plan their response to Ebola, which has killed more than 5,000 people in an outbreak in West Africa and a handful of people in Europe and the United States.

According to the guidelines, state health officials should evaluate a pet’s exposure to a patient with Ebola and contact with other humans and animals, with detailed questions about where the pet sleeps and and where it has gone outside the home.

Based on that assessment, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can help public health officials decide whether to quarantine a pet. The veterinarians provided a detailed list of protocols for transporting an animal to quarantine, handling its food and waste and protecting caretakers from exposute.

Ebola testing of animals will be done only in specific cases in consultation with the CDC, the veterinary group said.

If an animal tests positive for the virus, not just for antibodies, the pet should be euthanized and incinerated, the guidelines said.

(CBSNews) — The treats are intended as a form of reward, sometimes indulgence, but they could be doing more harm than good.

As of May 1, 2014 the regulatory agency has received more than 4,800 reports of illness affecting a total of 5,600 dogs, 24 cats, and 3 people.

A number of reports came from owners with multiple dogs. More than 1,000 dogs have died. There have been 1,800 new cases of illness since the last FDA report in October 2013.

The FDA says the jerky treats were almost all manufactured in China, with flavors that include chicken, duck and sweet potato.

In 2013 the FDA distributed a request to veterinarians to share case information. From the responses, the FDA performed post-mortem examinations on 26 dogs.

Thirteen cases were eliminated and of the remaining 13 cases, an association with consumption of jerky pet treats could not be ruled out.

Eleven of these dogs had indications of kidney disease and two involved gastrointestinal disease

Among the reports, 60 percent of the animals were said to suffer from gastrointestinal and liver disease; 30 percent had kidney and urinary disease; and 10 percent of complaints filed involved various other symptoms including dermatological, neurological and immune system-related problems.

General symptoms of illness include decreased appetite, decreased activity, vomiting, diarrhea with blood or mucous, increased water drinking, and increased urination within hours of eating the treats.

In several analyzes, the snacks were found to contain low levels of antibiotics as well as the antiviral, FDA approved drug amantadine.

However, the FDA does not believe the illness was caused by amantadine because symptoms in the case reports are not typically associated with the drug.

The FDA emphasized though that amantadine should not be present at all in jerky pet treats, and the agency has notified the Chinese authorities that the presence of amantadine in these products is an adulterant.

Chinese authorities told the FDA that they will continue to perform additional screening and will follow up with jerky pet treat manufacturers.

FDA has notified the U.S. companies that market jerky pet treats found positive for amantadine of this finding and are testing both imported and domestic jerky pet treats for amantadine and other antivirals.

There have been many challenges along the way in the investigation. For one, symptoms of illness tend to be inconsistent from an animal to animal, reported CBS news.

Additionally, many pet owners often fail to take their sick dog to the vet right away and instead choose to monitor symptoms for a few days, reported CBS news.

The FDA says it has called upon the expertise of the Centers for Disease Control to to conduct further studies and research, reported CBS news.

CHAMPAIGN — Health officials are warning pet owners to keep their cats indoors, after more tularemia has turned up in Champaign-Urbana.

Two cats have tested positive for tularemia, also called rabbit fever, which is caused by bacterium found in animals, especially rodents, rabbits and hares, according to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District.

There were also five cats diagnosed with tularemia in 2011 and 2012, said Rachella Thompson, communicable-disease investigator at the health district.

Cats can get tularemia when they prey on rabbits or rodents, or become infected by ticks. Symptoms for cats can include high fever, mouth ulcers, enlarged lymph nodes and behavioral changes that include not eating and depression, the health district says.

People can also become infected with tularemia through tick and deer fly bites, skin contact with infected animals, ingesting contaminated water, laboratory exposure and inhaling contaminated dusts or aerosols, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms for people include sudden fever, chills, headache, diarrhea, joint pain, muscle aches, cough and weakness, the health district said.

Tularemia is potentially life-threatening, but is generally treated successfully with antibiotics, according to the CDC.